Test Captain Tim Paine and head coach Justin Langer will embrace the shores of United States of America(USA) for a 10-day leadership tour to enhance what has been termed by Cricket Australia as "Elite Learning".
The two most powerful positions in the team-management will join CEO James Sutherland and EGM, team performance Pat Howard to meet a group of well-known sporting organizations and entities including the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Cubs, and the high-performance coaching team behind American golfer Jordan Spieth.
"One of our values within the Australian team is elite learning, It's really important with all your values that you're living them every day, and this is a great learning opportunity for all of us to rub shoulders and meet people who have obviously been very successful." Justin Langer told Cricket.com.au about the matter and added, "So we're walking the talk of always looking for new ideas, and looking to get better, and if the leaders of the team can be doing that, well that's a really good example to be setting for everyone else in the team."
"It's very important that Tim and I, and Pat and James, build a really strong relationship," he said. "I'm looking forward to being able to pick James's brain and use his long experience within Australian cricket. For Tim and myself, from everything I know about the modern game, the closer that we can be, the better."
Langer also sees this as a good opportunity for himself and Tim Paine to learn how to be comfortable with the powers that each of them enjoys and said, "We both have really important roles to play. There's been a lot of talk over the years about 'Who's the boss – the captain, the coach, whoever else' but I don't look at it like that, I just look at it as a team of people – we drop all our egos and we get on with it. If we build really strong relationships, it's amazing what you can achieve."
Langer also believes that the learning and experience gained from the US trip can also help during the upcoming Test tour of United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the Australian Test side is due to play a 2-Tests series.
He said, "In line with this US tour, it's very, very important that we strongly develop our leaders within the group, That's well and truly underway at the moment. Leadership doesn't just come with the flick of a switch – you've got to be looking for it to happen organically over time."
"So we've been doing some really good things in the pre-season, the guys have got a great opportunity in India (where Australia A are currently touring), and then of course it's going to be great to get back with the boys (in the UAE)" and concluded.
